Day that changed our world

We must come back stronger after Hamas' attack on Israel

- RICHARD PATER

More than two weeks after the brutal, ISIS-style attack, Israeli society is still coming to terms with the extent of the barbarity.

Just recently, rescuers found the bodies of a mother and child, believed to be aged five or six, who were hiding from gunmen when they were burned alive.

Per capita, if this tragedy had taken place in the UK, its scale would represent over 10,000 deaths with close to 1,500 kidnapped.

Even in absolute terms, the October 7 attack was shocking the equivalent fatalities of every mass shooting in the US since 1982 combined, in a country 30 times smaller than the US.

Before the attack, there was an over-reliance on the high-tech border wall between Israel and Gaza, and on automated surveillance systems.

Hamas, we now understand, had been planning its offensive for over a year. It launched the attack with a barrage of 2,000 rockets and deployed kamikaze drones in a co-ordinated attack on cameras.

This proved how vulnerable sophisticated systems can still be.

Going forward, new protocols need to be put into place.